ReHistory: Warwalker: The Mechoning: The Conversation

You say that, but I only see one perk now that gives a speed minus.

I like the 3 shoulder slots thing for armless, which especially explains how they can't equip melee.

I'm not so sure about the vengeful perk, since that's a pilot thing rather than a mech thing. But on the other hand, making perks that would technically apply to the pilot rather than the mech opens up new perk possibilities.

Anyway, I thought of an idea for a sort of recon perk, where the mech has increased radar capabilities. My idea for the benefits are farther radar range, the chance to detect stealthed enemies, and maybe increased accuracy at very long ranges. My ideas for the downsides is either less armor, (Replacing bits of armor with more sensors and radar equipment and the like.) or maybe a kind of weak point deal where since the mech's radar is more prominent, it can get hit easier and thus take down all their radar and communications except for short range radio and speakers.

And if you are gonna keep perks that technically apply to the pilot, how about a multitasker perk? Anyone with that perk is allowed to target multiple enemies in the same turn (provided they have weapons that allow that to be possible.) with an accuracy penalty while using it. (Or if people without the perk could also do it, then at less of a penalty than those without the perk.)

You are reading this.

Ah, I forgot that I made Worth the Weight just be a reload downside, now it's just Tread Lightly and Armored, so I guess a speed penalty isn't bad for Strong Arm.

I think at least three of the characters in the first version were a teensy bit Hot-Blooded, so I figured there should be a perk relating to that.

Recon perk sounds good for stealth detection and long/very long range accuracy. I guess I'll have to make stealth units appear in the game more often, though.

Also, I wasn't planning on giving anyone penalties for targeting multiple opponents, figuring I'd chalk that up to targeting systems*

. But what about Hand-Waving that perk as an improved recoil-compensation system that allows a mech to fire all weapons without being stationary.*

Or even at a reduced speed

And if no one else has anything else to add, would you guys like the signup thread and new discussion to pop up sometime today or tomorrow?

And does anyone see a way to abuse the perks? I know armless and tread lightly would have made the mech a tank with a vertical slab, so that's the only combo I can really think to put off-limits. I mean, if someone chose weapons platform and armless, they'd have five slots (4/1 or 3/2 shoulder/back slots), but I'm okay with that, since the mech would have a lot less health, and a heavy mech isn't exactly exactly able to dodge attacks that well to begin with, so if the player's okay with those risks, who am I to judge.

edited 8th Jul '12 10:10:28 AM by nman

-ahem-

• Armless: You can't hurt me, I'm unarmed.

Question, It's said the Oxy-Incinerator is counted as an energy weapon. For the design I want to be properly min-maxed, would a Capacitor Bank count towards reducing the Reload time in it? If so, then I have a design for Soloman 2.0 that should get things back on track.

edited 8th Jul '12 1:58:53 PM by Fauxlosophe

Mé féin ag daṁsa faoin ngealaċ seanrince gan ċeol leis ach ceol cuisle. DS FC: 4141-3472-4041, feel free to add me.

Yup. The following is Hand-Waving why, in case anyone wants more than a one-word answer:

The way I picture it is that the capacitor bank is always there, sucking up and storing extra charge from the reactor. Once you've you've used up a weapon (or mod, since there's a few that recharge), it tacks on an additional recharge bonus to the weapon (or mod), in addition to the natural rate at which the reactor would have recharged it. In this case it was 1 turn for all energy things (I think). So while the Oxy-Incinerator uses oxygen tanks instead of its own capacitors, we can still say that the capacitor bank mod lets it compress the oxygen faster.

I mean, realistically I'd think that there would be a bottleneck with how fast it can filter and compress the air, but like I said a few posts back, I don't want to do full-on Grappling with Grappling Rules or be super-strict, so we can assume that the bottleneck was how much power the reactor could provide to the weapon, and all the other parts of the oxygen compression system are able to operate at higher power consumption rates.

edited 8th Jul '12 2:49:24 PM by nman

Aaaaaaaaaand my idea is bust because it used both the "Capacitor bank" from the Sign Up [Do Two Things At Once] and the one from here [Reduce Load Time] in order to big me a mighty fire spewing glacier.

edited 8th Jul '12 3:16:10 PM by Fauxlosophe

Mé féin ag daṁsa faoin ngealaċ seanrince gan ċeol leis ach ceol cuisle. DS FC: 4141-3472-4041, feel free to add me.

Wait, what did you want to do? We can always make more mods. I mean, capacitors are pretty versatile, there could be two different variants.

• Name: 'Soloman'
• Size: Heavy
• Perk:
  • Armless [Redundant Sort of but I can't help but picture it Armless]
  • Weapons Platform
• Appearance: Descriped sometimes as a two legged Frog with the Torso of a Revovler, the Soloman is far from the most anthromorphic Warwalker. It has two heavy hindlegs which bend backwards. Two heavy Oxy-Incinerators are covered by a wide rim of heavy armor over them. The Back is filled to the brim with suplimentry equipment to keep it firing.
  • Left Shoulder: Oxy-Incinerator.
  • Right Shoulder: Oxy-Incinerator.
  • Top Shoulder: Hunker Shield.
  • Left Back: Energy Capacitor [-1 Load Time].
  • Right Back: Energy Capacitor [-1 Load Time].
• Any other information: Based on modified captured German Models from the late War Period, Scientists who fled to the United States undertook many experimental efforts to reutilize the German Rocket Pods to reinforce terror and confusion in enemy units. Ethiopians imported many of the early models, particularly the US 'Kilpatrick', eventually modifying them with parts from the imported British 'Pendragon' Warwalker, in order to create a uniquely Ethopian Model; The Soloman. When the US ceased production as a mainline model, Ethopia was given the rights to produce them wholesale in exchange for supplying them as supplimentary models as long as the US requested them. Presently it is the main Warwalker of the Empire of Ethopia and the only one in domestically produced by them.

edited 8th Jul '12 4:34:38 PM by Fauxlosophe

Mé féin ag daṁsa faoin ngealaċ seanrince gan ċeol leis ach ceol cuisle. DS FC: 4141-3472-4041, feel free to add me.

That's pretty much a good signup, but there's just one thing: why do you have six things installed? And I don't really know what you mean by a multitasking capacitor upgrade. My best guess is that you want to shoot while having the hunker shield equipped? Because of the way it's explained (technobabblewise), that's not really possible.*

Buuuuut... it's not really a problem, since while you can't really shoot while you have the hunkershield installed, it's not like you can't just shoot, then activate it at the end of your turn and basically do the same thing you seem to want to accomplish.

Aside from that, though, when I put up the signup thread, that's accepted with that tiny change.

edited 8th Jul '12 4:25:12 PM by nman

Well, anyone with the weapons platform perk would already have 5 slots by the current wording of it. Either 2/2/1 or 2/1/2. (arm/shoulder/back)

Anyway, what about armless + strong arm? Is that a combo that would be impossible, or would one of the "shoulder" weapons be up-sized via the strong arm perk?

You are reading this.

They'd have five slots that are more-or-less shoulder slots (which can equip basically anything except a few mods and melee weapons), so they could have 4 missile batteries or something nuts. But then again, if you want a cripplingly overspecialized mech, who am I to stop you?

And yeah, sure, why not? You could combine Strong Arm and Armless with that explanation if you wanted to, though maybe we should change the name of that perk. Or just leave it as Strong Arm, with an asterisk.

edited 8th Jul '12 4:32:41 PM by nman

Misread: "Two shoulder or two Back slots" as meaning two NEW shoulder or back slots [Which did seem pretty OP]. Aside from that, even approaching while covered by the hunker shield would be handy rather than being locked into place but seen as I only have 5 slots, I might as well remove it.

edited 8th Jul '12 4:34:20 PM by Fauxlosophe

Mé féin ag daṁsa faoin ngealaċ seanrince gan ċeol leis ach ceol cuisle. DS FC: 4141-3472-4041, feel free to add me.

Oh, sorry, I meant total.

But, I dunno, do you want it to be two new slots? I guess we could have that option to have one or two new slots instead of one, but... your mech would basically have so much stuff ripped out that it would have less armor than a light mech, and still basically be as slow as a normal heavy mech.

Also, just thought of something: I think it might be a good idea to limit mechs to at most one of each of the hunker shield and energy shield, since having two or more would really be nuts.

edited 8th Jul '12 4:37:39 PM by nman

Four missle batteries? Must... Resist... Urge to make... Battletech catapult mech...

Anyway, we could rename it something like lopsided or... Wait, call it "one-sided".

To confirm something from a more munchkin perspective, say I take armless + strong arm/lopsided/one-sided, would I be able to apply it to the "middle" shoulder or not?

Maybe weapons platform could be one that can be taken twice, to get two extra slots total from it?

edited 8th Jul '12 4:38:26 PM by FirockFinion

You are reading this.

Well, I guess, if you really wanted to, then sure. Also, I should make it clear - it would only apply to weapons that could be fitted onto the arm slot, if it existed - I don't think there's much benefit to increasing the barrel length if you've got missiles or German rockets

And yeah, that's a good idea, weapons platform can just be taken twice like any other perk if someone really wants six slots.

Actually, screw it, I'll just rename it "BFG", and make it apply only to gun-type weapons, to get rid of any ambiguity and "arm"-related wonkiness.

edited 8th Jul '12 4:46:14 PM by nman

That sounds like a good idea. On another note, I just thought of a potentially broken build.

• Mech Name: Mc-Munchkinpants
• Size: Heavy
  • Perk: Armless + weapons platform
• Appearance: TOTALLY AWESOME
• Back: Capacitor bank
• Back: Capacitor bank
• Shoulder: Railgun Artillery
• Shoulder: Railgun Artillery
• Shoulder: Railgun Artillery
• Any other information: Firing a railgun artillery every turn, FTW. Or correction, make that every 3 out of 4 turns. But still.

edited 8th Jul '12 4:53:47 PM by FirockFinion

You are reading this.

I guess that would be a bit overpowered. Then again, they'd have minimal armor and forced to be stationary when they shoot, making them have no chance to avoid enemy fire (which would undoubtedly be concentrated on the mech with three railguns). Like I said, I'm nice, but I'm going to ensure that bad things happen in this RP regardless.

Took me about a minute to stop laughing, by the way.

But I don't know, if someone wanted to do that, would you guys feel like they made a Munchkin Mech, or would you feel like the mech is just the team's DPS? Though, there's no healers, so that probably wouldn't work out too well.

edited 8th Jul '12 4:58:21 PM by nman

Yeah, turns out I did my math a little wrong though and there would still be a turn where he couldn't fire, even alternating his fire.

However, he could very easily alternate regular railgun fire every turn with just one capacitor bank, and still have a slot left over for a backup weapon or extra module.

EDIT @ EDIT: We may not have healers, but we can have tanks. (Anyone who takes the extra armor perk.)

If we added a perk that forced enemies you hit to target you or increases the chance that they'll do so, we could have a complete meat mech shield dude to take hits for the lightly armored high-damage guys.

That would be getting into the multiple player min-max strategy territory, which might not necessarily be a bad thing, but still.

edited 8th Jul '12 5:06:05 PM by FirockFinion

You are reading this.

Since this isn't an MMO, we don't need to have perks or anything that change enemy targeting mechanics. The AI*

would just assess the current battle situations and determine what the best course of action is based on their orders, etc.

Also, I think I'll just add in that the railgun artillery must be in an arm slot, since it's a huge barrel and would have to be lugged around.

And I'm going to put the signup up soon.

edited 8th Jul '12 5:08:32 PM by nman

Alright, I put up the signup here. There's also a new discussion here.

Also, thought I'd ask a last question here before dirtying up the new discussion:

Do you guys want the same first mission, or a different one? "Same" is a bit inaccurate, though, as it's really just going to be something in Cuba, and then the rest is going to be different.

I'm good either way.

I'll need some time before I get a new signup done, since I'll have to think if I want to change up my mech at all. (I'll keep the same pilot though.)

You are reading this.

That's cool - there's no real hurry. And this time I want to make sure to get at least 8-10 people to start with, and like someone suggested*

I'll also have a character-interaction period to start with, to weed out the people who drop off the face of the Earth after their first post and let any stragglers join in there before the first mission.

I suggested that, yeah. Though I may not have been the only person to.

You are reading this.

Firock y u so make Stone Rhino

In other news I'm pretty sure SOMEONE is gonna pop up with a missile-specific mech, since there's pretty much one for every major Mecha universe out there.

• Possible weapon modification: turn sword into 'one handed melee', allow pilot to choose
• Possible weapon addition: Two-handed melee; takes both arm slots (not compatible with Strong Arm) but does much more damage and has better reach.

edited 8th Jul '12 11:37:26 PM by SOCR

How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all?